Walk-in cooler door



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Dec. 13, 1955 c. M. I INGLE 2,726,424

WALK-IN COOLER DOOR 'ldA 'l 7, 53 pr; 2 19 2 k@ fi-fw@ l l, l/ l/ f Arm/QN United States Patent Oilce 2,726,424 Patented Dec. 13, 1,9 55

WALK-1N COOLER DOOR Cleo M. Lingle, Hickman Mills, Mo., assignor to Lingle Refrigerator Co., Inc., Kansas City, Mo., a corporation of Missouri Application April 27, 1953, Serial No. 351,071

1 Claim. (Cl. 20-35) This invention relates to improvements in doors and particularly to that class of closure means used in refrigerators and coolers, the primary object being to provide an inexpensive, easily manufactured, lightweight door that will not warp or otherwise get out of shape, notwithstanding adverse conditions under which the same is placed in use, and including the collection of condensate on the door and other moist conditions tending to deform the door and prevent the tight fit that is desired and necessary.

It is the most important object of the present invention to provide a door for walk-in coolers that eliminates all of the heavy, bunglesome structure heretofore believed to be necessary and that includes but a few inexpensive, lightweight parts capable of holding the door against warping and buckling and thereby assuring that the same will always be tit tightly within the opening for which it is designed.

Another important object of this invention is to provide a walk-in cooler door that may be quickly assembled by virtue of the nature of the parts thereof and the manner of interconnecting the same as will become clear during the course of the specification hereof.

Other objects include the way in which the door is provided with a pair of longitudinal strips secured directly to a long flat panel, and which strips are interconnected by cross pieces, all for the purpose of holding the panel against warping; the way in which insulation for the door is held in place by a shallow pan; the manner of utilizing the aforementioned strips and cross bars to mount the pan, together with the way in which the pan is secured to the panel so that the latter will not warp and the pan will not buckle; and many more minor objects including important details of construction.

In the drawing:

Figure l is an outside elevational view of a walk-in cooler door made pursuant to the present invention, parts being broken away and in section to reveal details of construction.

Fig. 2 is a vertical, longitudinal, cross-sectional view taken on line II-II of Fig. 1; and

Fig. 3 is an enlarged, transverse, horizontal, crosssectional view taken on line III-III of Fig. l.

Doors for coolers and refrigerators, particularly the relatively large types used for walk-in coolers, have heretofore been extremely heavy and bulky and so designed in an attempt to avoid warping and otherwise becoming misshapened due to moisture collection, and yet have not been entirely satisfactory so far as overcoming this harassing problem is concerned.

Other attempts to provide a door that will maintain its shape over long periods of time and, therefore, effec- I tively seal the cooler for which it is designed, have included the use of a substantial amount of metal molded or otherwise, but the cost of `production is high and therefore, such doors likewise have not been entirely satisfactory.

In the door shown by the drawing there is provided cooperative structure capable of eliminating all of the aforementioned problems, and to this end, the door broadly designated by the numeral 10, includes an elongated, llat, rectangular panel 12 that is preferably made from plywood.

In manufacture, a pair of elongated, longitudinally extending strips 14 and 16 are rst secured to the innermost face of the panel 12 in spaced parallelism to the longitudinal edges of the latter. The strips 14 and 16 are preferably made from metal and are L-shaped in crosssection presenting a pair of legs 18 and 20. The legs 20 lie flatly against the innermost face of the panel l2 and are rigidly secured thereto by a plurality of screws 22.

Thereupon a number of elongated cross pieces 24 preferably of wood, are laid in place upon the legs 20 between the legs 18 and tacked in place by means of nails 26 extending through the legs 18 and into the ends of the cross pieces 24.

In constructing the door 10, the workman next lays a blanket of insulation 28 upon the innermost face of the panel 12 in covering relationship to the strips 14 and 16 and the cross pieces 24 and thereupon places a shallow pan 30 upon the panel 12 in housing relationship to the insulation 28, the cross pieces 24 and the strips 14 and 16.

The pan 30 preferably rnade of sheet metal, is provided with a pair of sides 32 and 34 and a pair of ends 36 and 38 that terminate in a continuous outturned peripheral flange 40 which lies flatly against the inner face of panel 12 and is secured thereto by a plurality of screws 42.

The pan 3l), the strips 14 and 16, and the cross pieces 24 are thereupon interconnected by screws 44 that extend through the sides 32 and 34 of pan 30, through the legs 18 of the strips 14 and l16 and into the ends of the cross pieces 24.

By following the few simple steps above outlined there is presented in the door 10 a construction that is extremely strong from the standpoint of reinforcing the panel 12 and the pan 30. The door 10 is very light and the pan 30 will neither buckle nor will the panel 12 warp, notwithstanding the formation of any condensate thereon by virtue of the way in which the four essential parts 12, 14-16, 24 and 30 are rigidly interconnected and interlocked. These structural elements forming the door 10 can be assembled quickly as becomes apparent upon understanding the procedure above outlined, and the completed door 10 can be easily handled for mounting in place in the manner illustrated by Figs. 2 and 3 of the drawing.

In this connection the hinge means and lock form no part of the present invention, but it is appreciated that the strips 14 and 16, as well as the cross pieces 24, facilitate rigid securement of such hinges and lock to the door 10.

A vapor seal or gasket 46, preferably of an admixture of rubber and cork or other pliable material, is cornpressed tightly between llange 40 and panel 12 and flange 40 cooperate with screws 42 in tightly securing pan 30 to panel 12.

Having thus described the invention what is claimed as new and desired to be secured by Letters Patent is:

A walk-in cooler door comprising an elongated plywood panel; a pair of spaced metallic strips extending longitudinally of said panel, said strips being L-shaped in cross section, presenting a pair of legs, one leg of each strip lying atly against and having a plurality of fasteners securing the same to one face of the panel, the other leg of the strips being perpendicular to said one face of the panel; a member of transverse cross pieces spanning the distance between said other legs of the strip and attached thereto, and overlapping said one leg of the strips; a metal pan enclosing said strips and said crosspieces and provided with sides and ends perpendicular to said face of the panel; a continuous outturned ange on said sides and ends; a sealing element between the ange and said one face of the panel; fasteners securing the ange and the sealing element to said panel; fasteners securing the sides against said other leg of the strips and to said crosspieces; and a blanket of insulation filling the pan.

References Cited in the le of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 

